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A guide to RPS Blood Bowl

Blood Bowl is a game of Orcs punching Elves over a ball. Simple enough.

Here at RPS we like the game so much we have several entire leagues devoted to it, spread across an equally baffling number of threads.

This particular thread is to help guide you towards the Blood Bowl League that is right for you. We'll try to keep it up to date so new players know where to go for some good old krumpin' and elfballin'.

It is considered good etiquette to join the RPS Bloodbowl steam group, and message potential opponents before making a challenge in any of the leagues, but not strictly necessary. Individual threads have more details, including spreadsheets of player contact details.

New players will be most interested in the Challenge League, Divisions of Death or FUMBBL group, as these have short or no waiting periods to join.

Blood Bowl: Legendary Edition (Cyanide)Cyanide's version of Blood Bowl is widely popular as a good, graphical way to get into Blood Bowl. It's not without flaws, but it still has excellent gameplay.

NOTE: IN MOST CYANIDE LEAGUES (Exception: Challenge League), RESULTS MUST BE VERIFIED BY AN ADMIN. THIS ALLOWS GAMES TO BE PLAYED AGAIN IF A PLAYER CRASHES. THEREFORE, AFTER COMPLETING YOUR MATCH YOU WILL NOT IMMEDIATELY BE ABLE TO SPEND YOUR NEW SPP AND GOLD.

The RPS Challenge League is an informal place for RPS coaches to play against each other. There are no restrictions on race or TV, and there are no fixtures. Instead, you challenge other players to a friendly match for fun or practice.

To sign up, you need to apply to the League with your team and post in the thread. Once an admin approves you (because we don't want any of those rage quitting, mother-slandering non-RPS types ruining everyone else's fun), you can then play as you wish.

The RPS Open has just started its fifth season. A season consists of up to fourteen coaches (depending on interest, currently 12) playing all others once, with ten days to fit in each match. This makes each season take about four months to finish.

Teams start at a TV close to where the teams from the previous season ended at. For season 5 this was 1600 TV. A maximum of one player per race is enforced. (Rules are subject to tweaking between seasons.)

The RPS Open is currently NOT accepting signups. The next season will not be starting until September.

The Divisions of Death are a series of mini-leagues. Each division has four players, and at the end of the month players are promoted, demoted or shifted to the side based upon the performance. This helps ensure that each month a player will face a completely different set of opponents. There are currently >40 coaches involved, and ten days are allowed for each match, meaning that the league is updated every month or so. Check out post 1 of the Divisions of Death thread for more details about how to register your interest and how it all works.

There is a separate thread for organising matches (which has mostly been replaced by Division specific threads in the Forum Group), whilst the main thread is used for reporting results.

New teams start at around 1000 TV. Currently a maximum of about four players per race are allowed.

The Divisions of Death is currently SEMI-OPEN and accepting signups, you’ll have to keep a close eye on the thread, as normally the next season gets going in less than a week, and you’ll need to apply in that time or miss out for another month.

FUMBBL (BB-esque Java application, £free!)FUMBBL is a free alternative to Cyanide's offerings. What it lacks in graphics, it makes up in portability and flexibility. Unlike Cyanide BB, you can even save mid-match and come back later!

The RPS FUMBBL Group is currently used for casual matches between FUMBBL players.

Teams may start at any TV. There are no race limitations.

The FUMBBL Group is currently OPEN and accepting signups.

How to play
The official rulebook, to which the Cyanide version of the game mostly adheres, can be found on the Games Workshop website here. There are a few other documents of interest on this page, whilst bbtactics.com is an excellent resource for planning teams.

Just spotted this again whilst looking for something else. Would we need to pester one of the Hivemind for a sticky? Or are there new forum-boss type folks that I've forgotten about in the new-o-forum?

I am bumping this, although with the Divisions having just started their new season and the Open being what, halfway through? Not even? it's not the best time to be signing up for Blood Bowl on RPS. There is however the Challenge league, which is well worth signing up to as you'll encounter far less farmed teams and dicketry than you would in Auld World or Naggaroth.